Fri 5th Aug 2016 - Deliveroo secures more than £200m for expansion Deliveroo secures more than £200m for expansion: Restaurant food delivery service Deliveroo has secured more than £200m to fund its expansion. The company, which is facing the threat of competition from the likes of Uber, has sealed £208m ($275m) of new capital from new and existing investors. The latest round is led by Bridgepoint, the UK-based private equity firm that owns companies such as the ASK Italian and Zizzi restaurant chains. General Catalyst, a US-based investor that has backed Airbnb, is also taking a small stake. Existing investors that are injecting new money include DST Global, whose founder Yuri Milner is one of the world’s most successful tech company backers after making huge sums from stakes in Alibaba and Facebook. Greenoaks Capital, which invested in Deliveroo’s $100m (£76m) fundraising last November, is also participating in the latest round. Chief executive Will Shu said: “After seeing strong growth in the markets we launched in November, our new focus is to drive further innovation in food delivery. In particular, I’m excited about exploring completely new ways to solve the hardest problems restaurants face when offering delivery. RooBox is the first illustration of this approach, and innovations like these are at the heart of our mission. We’re proud and honoured to have the support of Bridgepoint, DST Global and General Catalyst in this endeavour.” The new fund-raising is by far the largest sum raised by Deliveroo during its brief history, and will catapult it to so-called “unicorn” status – a coveted label reserved for technology companies worth at least $1bn (£760m). Deliveroo had already raised nearly $200m (£152m) since ‎January 2015. In total, it has now raised about $475m (£361m). Deliveroo organises food deliveries for restaurant brands such as Byron, PizzaExpress and Wagamama. Founded three years ago by Shu and Greg Orlowski, it also has delivery contracts with some of London’s most upmarket restaurants. Overall, it now covers well over 2,500 London outlets, and said its average delivery time is 32 minutes. The shares of Deliveroo’s founders are now likely to be worth tens – if not hundreds ­– of millions of pounds each, with the new investors all holding minority stakes. While its growth has been spectacular, it is facing fresh competition from the likes of UberEats, a service established by Uber, while Amazon is said to be planning to roll out a similar service from the US to the UK in the coming months. JustEat, a London-listed rival, has a market value of more than £3.6bn and has impressed City analysts with its growth. Market research firm Euromonitor has forecast the UK food takeaway market will grow by 4% to well over £7bn (£5.4bn) between this year and 2019.